“HEBREWS tells us that we should not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing many have welcomed angels without knowing it,” Dr Krish Kandiah, founder and director of the Sanctuary Foundation, says, describing the inspiration behind No Place Like Home, the charity’s arts competition for young people.
“There’s something about the gospel and the way that our faith is set up that hospitality is the defining feature of who we are — that’s what sets us apart. This art and poetry competition is one way we can show that.”
The competition, now in its third year, invites seven- to 19-year-olds across the UK and internationally to reflect on the experiences of displaced children around the world. Through poetry and art, both young refugees and those imagining life in their shoes explore what belonging means and the cost of losing that sense.
“That’s what’s unusual about this competition,” Dr Kandiah says. “We don’t judge looking for the refugee voice — we’ll listen to anybody. But it’s often the refugee voices that win, even though they’re operating in a second or third language, because their experience is so real, it cuts through. So, it allows us to listen in to that voice, but I think the other thing this competition allows us to do is build empathy.”
One of the nine judges, the children’s author Sita Brahmachari, agrees. “We don’t have to have refugee experience ourselves to be empathetic to a refugee experience,” she says. “Each one of us, when we think about home, we know that every single human being should have the right to that.”
THE prizegiving, held in the British Library on 15 June, was timed to coincide with the first day of Refugee Week. All the artworks and poems were on display throughout the day in the Knowledge Centre. Several hundred entries were received from schools across the UK, and two from Ukraine. The event was also live-streamed and watched by 2,500 students, teachers, carers, and family members.
Stanislav, a 14-year-old from Ukraine, explained the thinking behind his painting. “The idea was to compare our lives from before and how much more vibrant our lives here have now become,” he said
His painting, which was “highly commended”, is in two halves. On the left is Ukraine, which he and his family fled in May 2022 with “just two bags, having nothing”. Depicted in this section are “the main aspects of home”: a field of bright yellow sunflowers, a windmill, trees, and storks.
On the right are famous landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, the leaning tower of Pisa, the Great Wall of China, and Big Ben. At the bottom of the painting are a family of four facing outwards.
Stanislav’s painting, No Place Like Home, which was “highly commended”
“Our family loves travelling and when we came to England, there were so many more opportunities to travel. My picture represents a past life, for we usually stayed in one home for most of our lives,” Stanislav said.
The painting shows that he and his family are still thinking about their past, but are also embracing the opportunities of their unexpected new life. His mother, Hanna, who attended the ceremony with her husband and their youngest son, said: “We are endlessly proud of the nation we have got acquainted with and the place we came from.”
She described the No Place Like Home competition as important for the children’s well-being, “for the prosperity, for positivity, and for moving forward as they all have been doing”.
ZAHRA, a 19-year-old refugee from Afghanistan, wrote her poem Home about the Taliban and women’s resilience. It won the Key Stage 4 and 5 category. Her poem opens with a description of her home:
Home is the sound of sewing at night, my mother’s hands moving soft and light.
Home is my father working late, carrying hope, carrying fate. . .
She goes on to describe how her mother and sister were forced to close their business, and the family were forced to flee the country for a different life.
The poem ends:
Sometimes my heart travels far away to Afghanistan, where my memories stay,
And I think of the girls still there, dreams in their heart, they still carry with care,
Girls who hope, girls who try, even when their voices must stay shy.
One day the dark will turn to light. One day their dreams will rise in flight,
And the daughters of Afghanistan will be strong and proud, and finally free.
The actress Juliet Stevenson, who read out the poem on video link, describing Afghanistan as “the most brutal regime”, said: “For women there, as we know, the situation is just desperate and they have become imprisoned in their own homes, are not allowed education, they’re not allowed to work, not allowed to go out.
“Zahra takes this very beautiful form, this gentle lyrical form, but expresses this horror within that form . . . She has that kind of wonderful optimism and that belief that this brutality will be overcome. This regime will change and she and the women of Afghanistan will find their lives restored to them and their future, and it’s fantastically powerful ending.”
ALEX WHITFIELD, the British Library’s head of learning and participation and a competition judges, said that the Sanctuary Foundation’s prizegiving would form part of the library’s 170 million-item archive. “When researchers of the future look back at what young people in 2026 were thinking, doing, saying, believing, hoping, they will find a record of today, and images of the poems and artworks that illustrate how young people endeavoured to share and understand the diverse experiences of other young people.”
And Dr Kandiah said that the children were “so proud that their work was being recognised here at this global institution; so that really makes us feel special.”
Neeva, 12, said that she found it difficult to put herself in the position of those forced to flee their country. “It took a lot of work to write this poem. . . I had to put myself in the shoes of a refugee, so thinking about what they might have left behind if they had to flee really quickly, or things that they might have missed from their old country.”
In her poem, which was “highly commended”, Neeva wrote about the difficulty a refugee child may face of having to learn an unfamiliar language:
The words here are a JUMBLE; in the past they were clear
My world is full of SILENCE.
Ms Brahmachari, who had previously featured in videos with the Sanctuary Foundation, described the day as her “favourite day of the year”. Between the giving of the prizes, she a workshop for the children, outlining this year’s Refugee Week theme, courage. “When people think about courage, they might think of big, loud stances and noise, but writing and art are forms of courage as well,” she said. “It’s about placing your voice in the world.”
DESPITE the challenges of today’s political climate, Dr Kandiah says, the competition has left him feeling optimistic. “It is a really tough time to be speaking up for asylum seekers and refugees. There’s so much hate out there and then you listen to these children — and suddenly you’re energised.”
The British Library Dr Krish Kandiah hosts the No Place Like Home event at the British Library
He and the 15 or so volunteers and judges gathered in a circle for a feedback exercise. When they were asked to describe the event in three words, these included “inspired”, “hope”, and “joy”, but also “frustrated”.
The judge who used this word explained that she was referring to continuing intolerant attitudes to refugees, when kindness and respect for everyone ought to be everyday values. Murmurs of agreement filled the room, and participants said that this was exactly why children needed events of this kind — to promote respect, empathy, and understanding.
Dr Kandiah said: “I’m finding it increasingly controversial to be speaking up for asylum-seekers and refugees, even in the Church, and I find that scary.”
It was not, he suggested, “a secular invention, this idea of refugees. It’s something the Bible holds closely with — this concept of welcoming the stranger. We’ve got to be careful we’re not blown around by the culture wars, but actually allow what the Bible teaches about welcome to shape our lives as churches and individuals.”